The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Adapted by Joseph Cowley}

<p>Nathaniel Hawthorne was born at Salem Mass. on July 4th 1804. He led a shy and rather somber life with little encouragement to write yet not wholly uncongenial in view of his temperament. His life is reflected in his <i>Twice-Told Tales</i> and other short stories the product of his first literary period. In these stories his understanding of men and women was displayed with great subtlety.</p><p>He was forty-six years old when <i>The Scarlet Letter</i> appeared. It is considered his best work and is a good demonstration of his unique and imaginative mind. In 1850 the year <i>The Scarlet Letter</i> appeared he began <i>The House of the Seven Gables</i> a later romance or prose-tragedy of the Puritan-America as he knew it - missing art and the joy of life.</p>